Evolution

[avmyg 10]

i hoppe for a evolution/CTI for ARMA 2:bounce3:

[Nowyoudie 0]

Same, but give it time.

[SaBrE_UK 0]

Noooooo!

I hope we get an abundance of realistic team versus team missions, too, if the game allows it practically.

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Moving to A2 - User Missions.

[Commando84 0]

I wish for all kinds of types of missions :D preferably combined arms with all choppers, tanks ect..

[eenter 0]

Let's hope for something better than Evolution....

[Misfit Leader 1]

Let's hope for more diversification. All servers with players playing just few missions and always the same isn't the good way.. and always playing the same mission (or the same kind like "Warfare on rahmadi" "warfare on xxx"..) isn't good too.

With the wonderful things ArmA II gave in the Vanilla version, hope we get lots of missions that can be done in less than 4 or 5 hours and that aren't repetitive with multiples differents objectives and surprisings events.

Maybe also some coop campaign. We can do them i think, now that the BIS campaign is playable online ?

[MulleDK19 21]

I HATE EVOLUTION!

I hate most user missions people made for ArmA 1.

Whenever you go online in ArmA 1, you get a lot of weird missions, that are thought up by some fool.

If I want those kind of maps, I would be playing Counter-Strike, or something worse.

Every fucking mission you see online has no squads, and has some weird gameplay like Evolution.

I'm still waiting for the day people will make warfare missions, and not just some weird DM mission.

Make something where you work together in squads, and make use of the features present in the game! No server has any squads, everybody does what they want. Where is the freaking tactics?

One thing I learned from ArmA 1, is to play on my own server if I want to have just a bit of war simulation.

[11aTony 0]

Well thats public, what can you do but what has evolution to do with CS? There isnt enough variety for you or what? What is normal mission for you though if everything is weird? What kind of missions you like to play? Evo can be a lot of fun with the right guys and right mods:), as any other mission. When arma came out we played all kinds of missions. I think when Evo 1.5 came out most servers started running it all the way to 2.0 and now all kinds of it (ace, revive versions...).

[Misfit Leader 1]

Evo is the same mission repeating over until you capture all town. 5 hours doing the same thing ?

Oh of course, you can try many approach.. there still too much pain in such easy mission.

I am not against some server with evolution, but lots serveur running only with just evolution, domination, different warfare missions on different (but the objectives is the same).. the problem is not only the mission, it's the community.

When you connect and look at the server, 99% were warfare/evolution/domination/rpg mission i don't remember the name.

There are plenty of missions for ArmA (and will be for ArmA II), when you try to play one of them on your own server you are alone.

I haven't done OFP party online because i didn't get internet connexion for that, but i don't think it was composed of server running missions like that from what i have heard by my "arma friends" who played OFP online.

Maybe it's because of the JIP, maybe the community has evolved to something very strange. But i remember seeing few servers sometimes that keep the simulation spirit and try play mission with a soul and not just a basic mission where you kill, get kill, respawn got super chopper.

I don't think there is lots of server where these mission are played in coop, and there are even less time where it happens on these server.

When you can't respawn, you don't go on your own. I hope the new injury system will stop the community to blow up and goes on their own.. i've prettry much saw that on public server. But when on closed party, we can set up better games & missions. That's where you get happy, that's where the immersion come from.

Why don't people do the same thing on public ? I think we all by ArmA (II) for the same thing, the same spirit.

[Benny. 15]

There is a default BIS Evolution mission hidden in missions.pbo

I've extracted it but i didn't had time to fully test it so some parts could be bugged.

If you want to test it: Evolution

[Ackart 10]

There is a default BIS Evolution mission hidden in missions.pbo

I've extracted it but i didn't had time to fully test it so some parts could be bugged.

If you want to test it: Evolution

And to think I was just about to come here and post this!

But yeah, this looks like it should work.

edit: Trip report!

It's the barebones of evolution. The system seems to be in place, however only one town is under enemy control (That I can tell) and I can't seem to find a place to get side missions. Still, it helps scratch the evolution if you really want to play it.

Edit of an edit: Scratch the only one town part. It appears you have to capture towns in order - enemy control will shift accordinly.

Edited May 30, 2009 by Ackart

[MulleDK19 21]

Well thats public, what can you do but what has evolution to do with CS? There isnt enough variety for you or what? What is normal mission for you though if everything is weird? What kind of missions you like to play? Evo can be a lot of fun with the right guys and right mods:), as any other mission. When arma came out we played all kinds of missions. I think when Evo 1.5 came out most servers started running it all the way to 2.0 and now all kinds of it (ace, revive versions...).

The problem with Evolution is that it makes ArmA a lot like BF2, etc. There's no squads, no real mission, etc.

[icewindo 29]

The problem with Evolution is that it makes ArmA a lot like BF2, etc. There's no squads, no real mission, etc.

The times I played (not unlocked) Evolution it felt more like WoW, everyone was grinding for points to get to the next rank for some awesome epic tank or apache and didn't care much about helping others or moving in teams. After a restart people would start grinding all over again.

Thus I didn't see much point in it, as in the earlier Sahrani Life missions with no stats savings.

Edited June 1, 2009 by Icewindo

[horror1 10]

problem is that most missions are not jip friendly, and alot have settings wich makes ordinary pubbies disconect after their first death.

arma hasnt much players anyway and pvp isnt really enjoyable in arma 1 hope arma 2 will do a better job after some patches:)

[11aTony 0]

The problem with Evolution is that it makes ArmA a lot like BF2, etc. There's no squads, no real mission, etc.

What do you mean, no squads? Of course there are. Please define whats "real" mission for you. Im not saying that evo is.

[Kolt 0]

i am strongly against Evolution.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

I'm strongly for another Evolution Blue & Red package for ArmA2. Squad coop multiplayer was never better than these. Ppl just forgot how to play them right with all those custom versions out. (MHQ & stuff)

If you don't play it right, don't blame the mission. Amen. :)

[pogoman979 10]

this is true, the original evolutions were quite hard and if you had a bunch of guys on ts it could be very fun, its just all the crappy modded versions released (MHQ, paradrop etc) that ruined it. all the bf2 players spammed up the servers with the crappy versions so they could lonewolf the game and so we all started loathing evo.

[An-225 0]

I'm against Evolution.

Since 2007, it has been nothing but Evolution, there were no interesting missions to play, because Evolution was the only one being played.

Ranked Evolution wasn't hard. It was "Sit on the hill with the HMMWV (M2) and kill everything moving to rank up. Repeat with the M1A1."

Next, a common symptom of most mission designers in ArmA, they placed objects right next to the airport runway, another pet peeve of mine in Evo (and indeed in every other mission).

But there are so many things wrong with Evolution, its not funny.

You can hardly ever find 40 players to play Evolution with. Evolution requires 40 players to be a realistic mission. I hear people say that: "Oh, but we've finished it with four players."

Yes. Four players capturing an island. Very realistic.

At least on public servers, there was hardly any teamwork. Neither was teamwork encouraged. Strangely, as soon as I changed the mission to something non-Evolution, everyone was playing/sticking together, and using teamwork.

The radio tower could only be brought down by satchels, which eliminated one facet of teamwork. If I could get a man in there to paint the tower, why couldn't I drop a Paveway on it?

There were too many vehicles, enough for everyone to take their own and therefore end up with vehicles that were not fully crewed and no one on the ground.

It is 2009. Let the good mission makers create brilliant, creative missions. Not a one-size-fits-all mission. ArmA should be ArmA. Not BF2. It should not be a rapid conquest of the island, rather a slow and gradual conquest depending on what occurs in between.

And the bugs in the mission destroyed it completely. Often, Evolution would end up with me and four other people searching through the towns to find one last soldier who went prone in a bush, not moving at all. This would continue for hours.

Edited June 5, 2009 by An-225

[11aTony 0]

Its not evos fault that everyone were running it. Apparently people liked it. Evo IS NOT stopping you or anyone else to do different kind of missions.

You dont have to play it the way you say you did. Only satchels for radio towers was actually encouraging teamwork. Meny guys vere covering their ends so one could plant the bomb. Before that someone just fired M136 from 500m in it and it was done. It would be nice to have the ability to destroy it with gbu but that is not that hard to do. You can recruit your own AI members to fill those not fully crewed vehicles. Even if few guys have their own hmmwv or m1 it doesnt mean that there is no teamwork. Then people say that "oh no, thats gay to have AI in your command". I dont think I need to say anything further about this one.

If public servers are only running evo and you rely on it then join a clan or something where they have everything.

[An-225 0]

No, ArmA is not about balance. The satchels to destroy the tower only tried to balance it some more, and it made it less realistic in the process.

Realism over gameplay for ArmA (where realism is the gameplay).

Five players capturing an island is not realistic.

"Someone fired an M136 from 500m and it was done."

So, the mission designer should have placed the OPFOR in a better manner so as to cover the radio tower. Artificial methods such as immunity to everything other than satchels only harms the gameplay and teamwork.

Painting the tower with a laser requires skill, to actually get someone in between all of the obstructions to designate it. To get inside the town unnoticed by the OPFOR, and find a spot to paint the radio is actually quite hard in itself.

Satchels to destroy the radio tower also limited the ways in which you could have teamwork. One of the brilliant things about ArmA is its open-ended presmise. So you aren't just limited to using the satchel, but you can use a SMAW, a Mk.82, a GBU or whatever is capable of taking down a radio tower. Crappy arbitrary rules that limit the open-ended premise should never be imposed.

Evolution did not encourage teamwork. I don't want to join a clan to have to play ArmA 2. Like I stated, the instant the mission was swapped to a small-scale co-op mission (Desert Ambush), people started cooperating and the teamwork started to flow in. But when Evolution was on, there was hardly any teamwork at all.

And again, searching for hours on end to find the last OPFOR who went prone in a bush is absolutely no fun at all or realistic.

[11aTony 0]

Then you should just delite one script called "bombonly" I think and you get rid of satchel only. Evo can be modded in so meny ways. The point is that if 5 guys like to play evo on their own then they should play it. What do you care what they play. If you dont like it go play desert ambush. You know how meny people dont like ACE mod for instance? And no one is like no, dont make another ace mod for A2. Make it if you want.

If you dont like evo just dont play it or mod it for your own taste.

[S7_Mega 10]

Evolution in itself was a very good idea and can be fun to play. Many pros and cons have been stated in this thread and hold true. ArmA does indeed hold tremendous promise for squad play. Evolution is one mission that is only as good as the people playing the game. It's fun, fast and furious with good teamwork. It's a lone wolf grindfest with poor teamwork.

It's just one of many missions to be played.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Realism over gameplay for ArmA

Now how many times i have read that since the early days of OpF mission design, and the ppl who said that were always wrong.

You can't replace gameplay with realism. There are always things you need to work around in order to create a good mission.

It's far more harder to create a fun mission than a realistic mission. Many official missions from OpF/ArmA are straight fun but only semi-realistic. I have played the classic 'Ambush' (mission from the OpF demo) 2000 times and it's still fun now i can play it again with CWR. You are transported around in a truck to the front line, just 200m from the first enemy contacts. You would call that realistic?

The key is to find the best balance of realism and gameplay, right at the point where the fun starts. Nuff said.